Tesla, PG&E partner on "smart charging"
Tesla and PG&E have announced a partnership to research and develop vehicle to grid (V2G) technology. The focus of the research will be on Smart Charging. What's smart charging? If you don't know, let JB Straubel, Tesla's Chief Technology Officer explain:"Smart charging is a form of V2G in which the vehicle does not provide power back to the grid. Instead, the vehicle charging rate is controlled remotely in order to support the operation of the grid or to best match load to the availability of intermittent renewable energy resources such as wind and solar. Tesla Motors' goal in developing V2G is to eventually provide our customers with an option that could reduce their cost of electricity for vehicle charging while supporting greater penetration of renewable energy on the grid."
This sounds a lot like a solution I posted in a comment to my interview with Daniel Kammen on the operating costs of electric vehicles. There is enough capacity for electric cars to use the energy grid but there are small things to work out like how much it will cost and how people will charge their cars. PG&E has worked with many companies in the past (see links below) and will soon demonstrate intelligent charging with Tesla.
Related:
- PG&E demonstrates first ever vehicle-to-grid charging
- How PG&E will help Google with that 100+ PHEV, make computing greener and build the smart grid
- PG&E adds four Phoenix SUTs to their EV fleet
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joseph 7:49PM (9/12/2007)
Sounds good. It reduces the load on the power plant and saves some money, while being less complex (and potentially less effective?) than the V2G charging thingy where the car also can prodvide power back to the grid.
Reply
GreyFlcn 10:09AM (9/13/2007)
This sounds good. V2G never did make much sense.
However PG&E's plans for the car batteries after they have finished their purpose for transportation is rather interesting.
http://greyfalcon.net/plugins5
Reply